Description: Rising drug—and, to a lesser extent, health care—costs in Canada are creating long-term challenges for not only governments and employers across Canada but for individuals as well, with no easy answers.

Description: Many top-performing businesses aren’t just risk aware, but rather risk intelligent. Such a posture helps prepare companies for a major event and can demonstrate to a regulator or auditor that an appropriately strong control framework is in place. Better still, companies gain real strategic value from a “risk adjusted” understanding not only of their threats and vulnerabilities, but also the upside opportunities associated with various risks. It starts with having both qualitative and quantitative information to identify, assess and manage risks. Strategic risk management, at its core, is about creating value by increasing transparency and accountability, and quality of information. More than a mere compliance exercise, effective risk management enables more informed strategic decision making, increased accountability and transparency, a greater likelihood of organizational success, and – ultimately – competitive advantage, as borne out by many studies that correlate risk management and financial results.

Description: This article provides an overview of the latest IAS developments that affect insurers.

Description: Responsibilities Of The Actuary For Communicating Sarbanes-Oxley Control in accordance With Actuarial Standards of Practice

Description: This is the third in a series of articles about revenue recognition for insurance contracts. The articles address revenue recognition for those contracts that are measured by the building blocks approach under the emerging new standards for insurance that are being developed by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) of the United States.

Description: Presents a practical solution to some of the distortion caused by a typical application of the retrospective assumption update (unlocking) method.

Description: A description of current council member areas of responsibility, Life & Annuity Symposium sessions to be sponsored, and other future projects.

Description: An economic analysis of bariatric surgery and health care costs supports the case for health plans to cover these procedures.

Description: Health care predictive analytics varies between payers and providers as well as being a powerful tool in business decision modeling.

Description: Discussion of competing theories for valuing public pension liabilities. Emphasis on revised Actuarial Standards of Practice that focus on the purpose of the measurement.